Email Marketing is an effective way to promote services and brands. There are various steps involved in an email marketing campaign which include embedding of social media icons in the header and footer of email template, testing subject lines and track success rate.

These steps are not enough to ensure success in digital marketing and gain an edge over competition. There are many more things required to get the desired results. Evaluation of the existing email marketing strategy entails the following deliberations:

Has the marketing strategy been clearly documented?

Has a content plan been included in the digital marketing strategy?

Has a clear delivery schedule been set in the marketing strategy?

Answers to these questions hold the key of carrying out necessary changes in the strategy plan.

Here are 9 marketing tips to integrate email marketing with social media in order to get the best out of digital marketing activities.

1. Easier Email Sharing

Inclusion of predefined Tweet or Facebook content update in email which is meant to get automatically populated when the subscriber hits the shared link is an effective email marketing method as the marketer gets the control on what the email subscriber is going to convey when the email content is shared on social media. The predefined Tweets and Facebook updates also ensure that the right hashtags are used while sharing.

2. Mention Reasons For Email Sharing

When emails are sent to subscribers, one has to include some reasons for sharing an email on social media.Assuming that an email carries a coupon that will expire soon, call-to-action can be considered like “Your friend would be happy to know about this great deal. Share this now!” Similarly, if your email contains a link to a webinar that is filling up fast, then consider adding calls-to-action like “Your office mates would be benefited from this informative session/webinar – just share it!”

3. Ensure Distinctive Visibility Of Call To Action

It is very important to make the call-to-action stand out from the rest of the content, especially when one wants to spread the word about a new product. If the call-to-action is placed at the bottom of the email then consider moving it to the middle of the page using a creative graphic that says: “Let your friends know you knew about this before they did. Share this now!”

4. Include Call-To-Action In Multiple Places

If more exposure to the call-to-action is warranted, then consider adding it in multiple places in your email. Include it at the top, middle and bottom of your email. This strategy makes sense when the targeted email subscribers are busy people.

5. Give Attention To Loyal Readers

Is there an existing email marketing program in place? Get the statistics of the email marketing activities. Segregate people who have opened at least 60% of emails they received in the past 12 months. These are the people who find the email informative and useful. So, create a separate email marketing content specially for this segment of subscribers – something like – “You are a valued customer, so we are offering you a 25% coupon valid for the next 24 hours. Share this amazing deal with your friends before it expires!”

6. Segment Email Marketing Database and Use Relevant Social Networks For Each Segment

Consider sending the brand’s older and long term customersto Facebook and LinkedIn and the short term customers to Twitter and Instagram networks, for better results.

7. Include Popular Social Media Content In Email

This is a great way to get maximum leverage out of the target audience engagement. Mostly, social media users want to know what other members of the social media community are saying about a popular discussion including social media contents such as, “Did you miss your latest Facebook post? Over 300 comments and many shares!” in your mail, would do the trick.

8. Add Email Snapshot On Pinterest

Create snapshots of important items mentioned in the latest email marketing newsletter. Make visually appealing snapshots and pin them to one of the Pinterest board. This is a great way to get more exposure.

9. Customize The Unsubscribe Page

Make the ‘unsubscribe’ page impressive by customizing its landing page. Add social media icons to the landing page with a note: “Is your inbox getting too crowded? Like us on Facebook instead”